Karl Alexander Müller (born April 20, 1927) is a Swiss physicist who, along with J. Georg Bednorz, was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize for Physics for their joint discovery of superconductivity in certain substances at higher temperatures than had previously been thought attainable. April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... Events January 7 - First transatlantic telephone call - New York City to London January 9 - Military rebellion crushed in Lisbon January 14 - Paul Doumer elected president of France January 19 - Britain sends troops to China February 12 - First British troops lad on Shanghai February 14 - Earthquake in Yugoslavia - 700 dead February... The Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. ... The word physicist should not be confused with physician, which means medical doctor. ... Johannes Georg Bednorz (born May 16, 1950) is a German physicist who, along with Karl Alex Muller, was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize for Physics for their joint discovery of superconductivity in certain substances at temperatures higher than had previously been thought attainable. ... 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ... Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials at low temperatures, characterised by the complete absence of electrical resistance and the damping of the interior magnetic field (the Meissner effect. ...

Müller received his doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1958, and beginning in 1963 he performed research in solid-state physics at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, heading the physics department there for several years and becoming an IBM fellow in 1982. ETH Zurich (from its German name Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, ETHZ) is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Events January-February January 11 - The Whisky A Go-Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened. ... 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January-February January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British...

A specialist in the ceramic compounds known as oxides, Müller in the early 1980s began searching for substances that would become superconductive (i.e., conduct electricity with no resistance) at higher temperatures than had theretofore been obtained. The highest transition temperature (the temperature below which a material loses all electrical resistance) attainable at that time was about 23 K (-250 °C [-418 F]). In 1983 Müller recruited Bednorz to help him systematically test various oxides, materials that a few recent studies had indicated might be suitable for superconductivity. In 1986 the two men succeeded in achieving superconductivity in a recently developed barium-lanthanum-copper oxide at a temperature of 35 K (-238 °C [-396 F]), 12 K higher than had previously been achieved. Their discovery immediately prompted a wave of renewed superconductivity experiments by other scientists worldwide, this time using oxides, and within a year transition temperatures approaching 100 K (-173 °C [-280 F]) had been achieved. An oxide is a chemical compound of oxygen with other chemical elements, e. ... Electrical resistance is a measure of the degree to which an electrical component opposes the passage of current. ... 1983 is an integer and composite number that represents a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Barium is also the Latin name for the city Bari in Italy. ... General Name, Symbol, Number Lanthanum, La, 57 Chemical series Lanthanides Group, Period, Block 3 , 6 , f Density, Hardness 6146 kg/m3, 2. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11 , 4, d Density, Hardness 8920 kg/m3, 3. ...

The intense research generated by Müller's and Bednorz's discovery raised the prospect that superconductivity could be achieved at temperatures high enough for the generation and transmission of electric power, a feat that would have important economic implications.

See also

• Unconventional superconductor
• High-temperature superconductor

Unconventional superconductors are materials that display superconductivity but that do not conform to BCS theory or its extensions. ... The term high-temperature superconductor was initially employed to designate the new family of cuprate-perovskite ceramic materials discovered by J.G. Bednorz and K.A. Mueller in 1986. ...

Reference

• This article incorporates material from [1]  (http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/karl_alexander_muller.html), available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.